Unimaginative Cleveland Browns dull their Flash

Monday, December 08, 2008

Bill Livingston

Plain Dealer Columnist

Nashville, Tenn.- It is called the "Flash"
package, and it contains the Browns' last glimmer of
hope and interest. It speaks to the team's poverty of
imagination that the coaching staff used it too rarely to be
a force Sunday and too predictably to be a surprise in a
drab 28-9 loss to Tennessee.

Josh Cribbs, the man whose quarterbacking career for the
Kent State Golden Flashes gave the package its name, should
have gotten 20 "touches" Sunday against the
Titans. He got 13, but six were on kick returns. In the
Flash, he had seven, and six of those were rushes. Only one
was a pass.

Still, Cribbs looked like a muleteer in the Oklahoma Land
Rush compared to the rest of the backs. He gained 24 yards
on his six carries. He would fake a handoff to fullback
Lawrence Vickers at the so-called "mesh point"
between the two backs, then either follow Vickers'
blocking or swerve the opposite way on misdirection, running
for the edge, outside the containment.

The three usual running backs, Jamal Lewis, Jerome
Harrison (knocked out in the second half with a rib injury)
and Jason Wright, gained 10 yards on 11 carries. The Titans
are simply too big and too immovable on the defensive line
to move, short of the sudden legalization of earth-grading
equipment.

NFL coaches don't like to use the man who takes the
shotgun snap in a trick formation as a passer because he is
not a quarterback by trade. Cribbs' one pass attempt
was on a simple read, a "go" route to Braylon
Edwards, who could only get one foot inbounds on what was
almost but not quite a 46-yard gain.

There were more rpm's on Cribbs' throw than anything slung by the team's third quarterback on the depth chart, Ken Dorsey, who was Sunday's starter. The throw was more accurate than any deep ball Dorsey threw, too, in the cold temperatures and sharp winds of LP Field....

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